Best Midwest Food Towns

Culinary tourism

Some of us build whole vacations around food. Travel experts call it culinary tourism. We just call it eating well--restaurants with pancakes or prime rib so good you want second helpings on the way home.

Based on editors' extensive travels, we've picked the Midwest's five top food towns. (Since most big cities have strong dining scenes, we skipped metro areas of 1 million or more.) We looked for fresh ingredients, a range of prices and cuisines, farmers markets and neat food shops. Trust us. Visit anywhere on our list, and you won't go home hungry.

The next 10 slides show our finds at our top five towns. To see 60 other restaurants we liked, click on the link below.

#1 Madison: full of great taste

Nichole Fromm and JonMichael Rasmus enjoy eating their way through all 600 or so restaurants in Madison, Wisconsin. Their endeavor, addictively documented at madisonatoz.com, perfectly captures our top food town: quirky, totally democratic and full of great taste, not pretension.

The couple attribute the vibrant food culture to the University of Wisconsin and the city's working-class roots. Being a state capital amid rich farmland helps, too.

No matter your taste, budget or ethics, Madison (population: 555,000) serves a meal to match. For eco-eaters, the Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company (greatdanepub.com) offers an all-local Sustain-a-Burger. Students scarf pancakes at Mickie's Dairy Bar, while a trendier crowd nibbles tapas at The Icon (theiconmadison.com).

On State Street, enticing smells waft from ethnic restaurants such as Afghani favorite Kabul (kabulmadison.com). And for those who want to tap Wisconsin's own heritage, Bavaria Sausage (bavariasausage.com) makes a mean weisswurst, and The Old Fashioned supper club (theoldfashioned.com) cheekily lists Bud and Bud Light as "import" beers.

The Dane County Farmers Market (pictured) appeals to most everyone. Around the capitol, some 170 vendors sell amber honey, ripe tomatoes and tiny potatoes that still smell like damp soil (dcfm.org).

In fact, of our top towns, Traverse City has the most established food reputation. So why the silver medal? Traverse City is less affordable than Madison. And, aside from secrets such as Middle-Eastern cafe Silver Swan Homemade Foods (silverswantc.com), it's relatively lacking in ethnic options or hole-in-the-wall favorites. Sins to be sure, but easily forgiven over a sack of fresh-picked cherries.

#3 Ann Arbor: Food scene grows up

Rarely has a city's culinary reputation been so intertwined with one restaurant as is Ann Arbor's with Zingerman's Deli (zingermansdeli.com). What began in 1982 as Michigan's best place to get a Reuben has grown into a mini-empire of deliciousness, with a bakery (Jewish rye), creamery (homemade cream cheese), coffee roaster (single-origin Brazilian peaberry), mail-order catalog (sour-cream coffee cake) and sit-down restaurant (smoked chicken mac 'n' cheese). Make no mistake. We love Zingerman's.

But we also love how Zingerman's has invigorated the larger food scene in Ann Arbor (population: 350,000). Bob Sparrow, owner of Sparrow Meat Markets and Produce (kerrytown.com/sparrowmeats/), says that eliminating chemicals and using fewer, fresher ingredients means you can actually taste the cherries and duck meat in his gourmet sausage.

For years, University of Michigan students and faculty have sipped beers and lattes at downtown's sidewalk cafes. The city retains that college-town vibe, but the dining scene has grown up. You'll find fried local squash blossoms at Vinology (vinowinebars.net/vinology), a ginger-glazed salmon burger at Logan (logan-restaurant.com) and tender gnocchi at Gratzi (gratzirestaurant).

#4 Bloomington: Come just to eat

Bloomington, Indiana, hides at the end of the kind of highway where you might get stuck behind a tractor. Though not our smallest winner (that's Traverse City), Bloomington's population (184,000) belies a homey feel; you can park for free and walk to just about every good restaurant.

And there are plenty of them. Indiana University students congregate at laid-back spots such as wrap shop Laughing Planet (laughingplanetcafe.com). Another college town staple, ethnic food, gets a funky twist with Fourth Street's Restaurant Row, a string of houses-turned-restaurants.

More surprising, however, is the depth of Bloomington's adult dining scene, which relies heavily on local products. At eateries such as Farmbloomington, Restaurant Tallent and Scholars Inn(see next slide), you'll find an array of intriguing dishes from saffron walleye to a pomegranate-kissed filet mignon.

People here say that even after their kids graduate, parents keep coming back to eat out. After a bowl of spicy black bean soup at Uptown Cafe (the-uptown.com), we sort of understand the impulse.

Pictured: Little Tibet (anyetsangs.com) is one of three Tibetan restaurants in Bloomington.

#5 Des Moines: culinary ambition

Des Moines has undergone a dining transformation, the kind that happens one kitchen at a time, until residents look up and say, "Wow! Things have changed." We knew our list would include one rising star. Turns out, it's our hometown.

The biggest name: George Formaro. His best-known restaurant, Centro (centrodesmoines.com), packs crowds for contemporary Italian, and his newest, Django (djangodesmoines.com), has Des Moines' third oyster bar. Their classy interiors and seamless service signal a swell of culinary ambition in Iowa's unassuming capital (population: 547,000).

But Formaro's genius really lies in Gateway Market (gatewaymarket.com), the city's first successful gourmet grocery, whose cheese counter and stylish cafe finally give foodies a place to call their own. Elsewhere, Bistro Montage (bistromontage.com) delivers classic French cuisine. In downtown's ever-hipper East Village, Miyabi Yamamoto rolls the city's best sushi at Miyabi 9 (miyabi9.com). And, as befits a Midwest food town, he's not too cool to wave as you leave.